The recently announced Apple Pencil supports tilt sensing on the iPad Pro. On the Windows side, there have been more and more new tablet models supporting on-screen stylus too but none of these new comers does stylus tilt. It'd be great if they start to follow Apple's example in getting the tilt.
We want tilt Sensing
So far among all Windows tablet PC's, only the Wacom Cintiq Companion offers pen tilt sensing. In the following video that features a Cintiq companion hybrid, you'll see why tilt sensing is so important in controlling your brush:
As Linda Dong pointed out, the Cintiq has a number of drawbacks. The following video was done with a good old Intuos 3. The drawing is not 'on-screen', but your hand and the stylus won't block your view:
Again, you see how important it is to have both pressure and tilt support in getting expressive marks - at least with our Expresii, that is! And, yes, we think that Expresii's brush is currently the best in creation organic strokes without the use of pre-scanned images of some real brush marks. It's much closer to what you would do with real brush and paper. It's not only the look that matters, but also the interaction. Spontaneity is the soul of Eastern inkwork.
it's the Software
Like other artists have mentioned, it's now the software that either makes and breaks the deal. Many of the painting apps on the iPad (and Android, for that matter) has limitations (like memory/resolution/quality) that keeps them from being used for serious work (except Procreate I'd say, which does a great job with GPU-powered painting). Frankly, the MS Windows camp probably would want to use us to fight back against Apple (since now Expresii is Windows-only) - what you can do with Expresii's advanced brush and ink engine can't be done on an iPad - even the Pro! For comparison, let's take a look at Adobe's attempt to do watercolor on the ipad. It sounded good on the spec - you can zoom in a lot as it's vector-based, but what you get are some polygons which doesn't look nice when enlarged. (Update: Adobe's new Adobe Sketch has a better watercolor simulator now)
Adobe's attempt to do watercolor on the ipad (image from the 2013 paper 'Painting with polygons: a procedural watercolor engine').
Auryn Ink review by Tara Donocan. Maybe Adobe also realized that it's not that great afterall so they withdrew the app (Adobe Eazel) from the app store ending the app's short life. Another ipad app that does watercolor is Auryn Ink. However, as reviewer Tara Donocan said, the biggest problem is the low resolution - you can never print it out.
All these apps' watercolor effects are local in that the ink only moves in your strokes' vicinity. You will miss the global effects (and fun!) you get when using real watercolor which can flow pretty much all over the whole paper.
Now, take a look at the two videos of Expresii below. The first one was done on an 8" Atom-Z3735-based windows tablet (a 2014 model), which is too slow for a nice painting experience. The second one was on a 10.6" CORE-M based windows tablet released in the first half of 2015, which I'd already consider faster enough. (Update 2016: now with the latest version of CORE-M processor Expresii runs really fast enough on a mobile device)
In conclusion, brush/ink/watercolor sim is not easy. With good hardware, we still need good software to run on them to unleash the full potential.
All these apps' watercolor effects are local in that the ink only moves in your strokes' vicinity. You will miss the global effects (and fun!) you get when using real watercolor which can flow pretty much all over the whole paper.
Now, take a look at the two videos of Expresii below. The first one was done on an 8" Atom-Z3735-based windows tablet (a 2014 model), which is too slow for a nice painting experience. The second one was on a 10.6" CORE-M based windows tablet released in the first half of 2015, which I'd already consider faster enough. (Update 2016: now with the latest version of CORE-M processor Expresii runs really fast enough on a mobile device)
In conclusion, brush/ink/watercolor sim is not easy. With good hardware, we still need good software to run on them to unleash the full potential.
I hope you like what we are doing here in Expresii. Share your opinion and let us know what you think.
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